No, just that it requires attention and encouragement to taste good. Some teas taste good no matter how you brew them, others are finicky.

It's not my favorite tea, but it's decent. I was curious about it because winter petals are not common (picked after the winter harvest, as sort of a second picking). I may roast the rest of it, or just let it age and see what happens. It's not good enough at this point to baby the flavor out of it.

olivierco wrote:Today was a nice teaday for me I am having a Dong Ding, my sixth (and last) tea of the day. I had Darjeeling Puttabong S.F.T.G.F.O.P.1 and a just decent Tamaryokucha (not from o-cha) this afternoon.

I just went three days without actual tea as I was had nasty cold, I made up for it by drinking choco Yogitea with lashings of almond milk and honey. By day three I was on ku-ding and by day four I was back with good old Camellia sinensis.

I do sometimes go a few days drinking no tea or any other hot drinky type thing. It's worth having a break now and then. I like to ditch things once in while: Leave the iPod at home for a week or two, stop reading books & papers on transport, abandon my tea habit, leave the guitar alone for a bit etc. A little break lets you appreciate the bits on either side of the break a little bit more and the breaks just allow for more concentration on the other addictions.

tenuki wrote:hand harvested from Hou De

Is that tea talk for stealing from Hou De, five finger discount sort of thing.

Was out shopping in Whole Foods, got terribly thirsty, wandered into the tea section and found this:

T'was OK.

Sure beats Monster/red bull/rock star! Gotta hit Wild Oats and see if they have it. I found some ItoEn green sencha w/matcha in the supermarket a few months ago. It was OK, for bagged tea. I use it traveling. I have a terrible time visiting relatives and drinking tea. Not worth hauling all my equipment along with the dog food and assorted asthma meds. MIL has a gigantic selection of Lipton that is about 2 years old! Yuk.

Well, got to a third tea...won't make it to 4 as I had hoped. Just need to make more time to make tea...enjoy tea.

So, last leaves of my limited edition Kabuse cha. It is definately a good "sencha" but will not come close to even cracking my top 10 favs of Japanese teas.

Now I can open a new Japanese tea. I always think now after I finish a tea...am I more excited to finish the tea and move on to a new one...or am I saddened to see a friend departed. I think I am more excited to open a new tea in this case.

My Tea-at-3-on-Thursdays group at the office enjoyed Adagio's Darjeeling 22...with rosebuds thrown in the blend. It is a group of ladies, after all. Someone even brought mini poppyseed muffins, which made it all the more fun.